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SHORE VOICES COLUMN: A new kind of infrastructure is emerging in Salisbury

But it — Salisbury’s downtown — is in fact being transformed — in unexpected and largely subtle ways. The city’s future is being shaped and rebuilt, a piece at a time. But this time, it’s not bricks and mortar that’s being reshaped. It’s not the traditional way, yet it’s tangible and quite public, if you know what to look for and where to find it.

Most of us can recall a quote from the 1989 movie “Field of Dreams:” Build it and they will come.

The conventional wisdom is that you build the space — the ball field, the empty office shell, the customizable storefront or the spec house that’s ready to move into.

But in Salisbury — and our city is hardly unique in this — it was built decades ago and they came, but then they left. Since the late 1960s, Salisbury has been grasping for a way to get merchants and people to come back onto Main Street.

Today, there’s a new form of “build it and they will come” in town; it’s one you can neither watch rising from the ground nor a remodeling project to point to and say, “Look, it’s being transformed.”

But it — Salisbury’s downtown — is in fact being transformed — in unexpected and largely subtle ways.

The city’s future is being shaped and rebuilt, a piece at a time. But this time, it’s not bricks and mortar that’s being ­reshaped.

Build an entrepreneurial community and the needed space will evolve — that’s the refrain being sung by past Chamber of Commerce President Brad Gillis, Salisbury-Wicomico Economic Development Director Dave Ryan and Chad Brown, a freelance instructional designer who is the mastermind behind the Why#SBY signs that can be seen around town, which are linked to a Facebook page of the same name, www.facebook.com/whysalisbury.

It’s not the traditional way, yet it’s tangible and quite public, if you know what to look for and where to find it.

Stop in at Main Roots, a coffee shop on the downtown plaza, and there’s a good chance you will see a group of young adults huddled around a table, laptops open, engaged in intense and earnest ­conversation.

You will also find a similar scenario playing out at Viva Espresso or Pemberton Coffeehouse.

These young people might be discussing a new idea, an upcoming meeting or one that just took place. It might actually be the meeting itself. The energy is almost palpable.

In the recent past, such encounters might have happened in an office or conference room, and the attire would have been more formal. Today, participants come as they are most comfortable — in shorts or jeans, suits and ties, T-shirts and sandals, running attire or pantsuits and heels.

What’s important is that these folks are excited about Salisbury. They’re looking for opportunities to carve out a niche, create a career for themselves or make their community a better place to live. They tend to do it by engaging in whatever activities they love.

“In the 1970s,” said Ryan, “this community created Northwood Industrial Park. We saw a need for infrastructure that would be attractive to industrial plants.

“But today, we are creating an environment for new businesses. This new infrastructure must be attractive to a new kind of businesses — Wi-Fi, access to cultural activities, connectivity.”

“We can’t create community,” Brown said, “but we can create supports for entrepreneurship, a feeder mentality that might lead to a venue for co-working and education.”

Brown, who designs curricula for educational purposes, envisions an after-school program that would teach children and teens from low-income families how to use technology, to help them gain skills needed for high-tech jobs.

Ryan said Salisbury has long been an entrepreneurial community, pointing to Salisbury University’s four privately endowed schools and the microwave manufacturing industry that took root in the early 1970s with K&L Microwave and subsequently proliferated.

Today, that base is expanding with longstanding programs at SU including the annual Bernstein awards for outstanding business plans, the university’s living and learning communities, the recent addition of new programs that reward and support the growth of entrepreneurial ideas and small business start-ups.

Gillis often refers to such start-ups as the region’s best source of job creation — a multitude of jobs, but a few here and a few there, which adds stability because if one or two don’t make it and disappear, it’s not hundreds of jobs lost en mass.

And it’s all being built in tiny increments at the grass-roots level through brainstorming, networking and risk-taking on a smaller scale.

Susan Parker is the opinion editor at The Daily Times. Email her at sparker@dmg.gannett.com.